[Fr.; 1247 in Godef., Compl. (also c. 1400 tierteine, 1449 tirtaine (1718, Littré), 1487 tertaine; 1581 tritaine): cf. TARTAN.] A cloth woven of wool mixed with linen or cotton, ‘worne ordinarily by the French peasants’ (Cotgr.); linsey-woolsey.
1833. trans. V. Hugo’s Notre-Dame, II. xxiii. 69. Two of these women were attired after the manner of the good bourgeoises of Paris. The fine white gorget; the petticoat of tiretaine with red and blue stripes; [etc.].
1863. Sala, Last Crusader, 213. ‘Many and many a time,’ writes the good Sire de Joinville,… ‘have I seen the good king … vestured in a coat of camlet, a surcoat of tiretaine without sleeves, a mantle above the black sandalette.’
[1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, II. xxii. 579. We find kersey, tirretin (c. 1284–5: cf. I. 536/3], murrey, burell, rosete, keynet, reynes, and taursmaurs.]
1882. Glasgow Herald, 31 May, 10/4. ‘Tartan,’ to which the heart of the Highlander warms so readily, would seem to be neither Gaelic nor Irish, but introduced from France (tiretaine, a kind of cheap cloth), with the web itself and the method of manufacture.
1910. Sat. Westm. Gaz., 15 Jan., 6/2. Plump dames in tiretaines.
